CAPITAL CITY GETS ONE-MILLION US DOLLARS TO FIGHT CHOLERA

Uncollected garbage is now common site in Harare CBD and residential areas (Pic. The Herald)

HARARE – The government of ZIMBABWE has released ONE-MILLION US dollars to the City of HARARE for the capital to fight a serious cholera outbreak.

The money, coming after the killer disease has already claimed 25 lives, aims to help the municipality to repair or upgrade collapsed sewerage systems in most high-density areas.

THE HERALD says the city itself, which has an open budget towards the program, has also deployed teams from other areas to assist in the poverty stricken western suburbs.

The State-controlled newspaper says the authorities have further stopped disconnecting water to ensure residents have continuous clean supplies in the wake of the cholera outbreak.

Acting Town Clerk HOSIAH CHISANGO, who has visited some areas in GLENVIEW and KUWADZANA suburbs, says the council is also clearing rubbish dumps in the affected places.

He says their teams have been to areas of GLENVIEW, BUDIRIRO, KUWADZANA and MUFAKOSE since last week, repairing and upgrading some collapsed sewer portions.

Patients get attention at the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital (Pic. The Herald)

The development comes after the government has declared the HARARE cholera outbreak a state of emergency, following the detection of more than TWO-THOUSAND-300 cases in the neglected capital alone.

Areas like the central province of MIDLANDS, the south-eastern region of MASVINGO, the eastern highlands of MANICALAND, and the northern region of MASHONALAND CENTRAL have reported isolated cases of the disease.

THE HERALD says Health Minister OBADIAH MOYO has addressed the media in the capital after visiting the BEATRICE Road Infectious Diseases Hospital, ONE of the treatment sites in the city.

It quotes him as saying declaring the outbreak an emergency has allowed the State to organise resources quickly to contain the disease in HARARE, which has been the source of all cases reported countrywide.

Minister MOYO says the government will also be able to contain typhoid in the city as quickly as possible, to avoid further loss of life to such preventable diseases.

He has condemned the HARARE City Council for failing to attend to sewer bursts in GLEN VIEW for the past TWO months, resulting in the contamination of boreholes.

Minister MOYO says someone slept on duty, ONE of the problems the country must fight to ensure people work.

He says the whole outbreak is a result of blocked sewers, which residents reported, and which the council never repaired since JULY; and it now has the whole of GLEN VIEW and BUDIRIRO affected.

The ZIMBABWEAN Health Minister says the authorities will discuss to find a permanent solution to continued problems of the blocked sewer systems in the capital city of more than ONE-MILLION-600-THOUSAND people./Sabanews/cam